Saudi Arabia

Haven't been here in a while (sold, sorry) but I though y'all would find this interesting. It's an email response from my company's consultant in Dubai who is working with me on a very big project in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The response is to INTK's press release about business in Saudi Arabia which I sent him to see if it was really true:

"As hard as it may be to believe --- Absolutely true. There is one MONSTER site outside of Riyadh that I saw, with what I am told is 700 tower cranes of differing heights. I have not counted them, but can attest that there is a huge number of them."

Here's what I qualify as a 'very big project' in case anyone is interested:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraj_Al_Bait_Towers

It's actually referred to as "The Development of King Abdul-Aziz Endowment" on the project drawings.

How much money does the King have? The area we're designing is being covered with 24k gold leaf. There's a lot of work in S.A.

Judging by the negativity on this board, if I were a contrarian, I'd say it might be about time to buy more.

I don't think you're going to get that test. In order for a test lab to do a proper test there needs to be an ASTM standard. There isn't one that's appropriate for this product so the test has to be unconventional. That's why they have used testimonials and energy usage studies to back up the product. Here's an example:
Isulated glass used in commercial buildings is typically comprised of 1/4" glass, 1/2" air space, 1/4" glass. That gives a U value (inverse of R value) of about 0.6ish. If a very thin layer of metal is coated on one of the inner layers of glass (so thin you can see through it), the U value drops to about 0.3. So, you get a very large improvement in the overall energy performance by adding a HIGHLY conductive material into the equation. Now what do you think would be the result if insulated glass had all the components tested separately? No improvement. That is what they are up against.

$0.20. Nice.

Next time that 0.20 ask pops up I hope somebody bites.

Looks like our best sales rep in Turkey just got a big 'ol boost:

http://www.bepinfo.com/ViewArticle.aspx?aid=091204013&from=gateway&cce=34705

Been telling my friends about this one but the spread is usually so large it's scaring them away.

I think what happened with Petrobras was that they discovered a huge new oil deposit and their attention was instantly redirected.

I absolutely agree. Doing business in the Middle East is a risky business. My company and me along with them have been doing business in the Middle East for about 15 years. Back in the initial boom in Dubai when the tallest building was, ironically, The World Trade Center (the US Embassy is there) we started working with Al Abar Aluminum who has family ties to the Saudi BinLadin Group. They were an aluminum extruder who wanted to get into the cladding business but had no knowledge of building skyscrapers; they mainly did storefronts. They hired us to come in and rescue the design of the Chicago Beach project which now has a new name (I can't recall the new name) but anyone who sees it will recognize it because it looks like a giant sailboat. The next project was the Emirates Towers. We worked with them designing and engineering the cladding up to the point that they felt they had learned enough from us that they could do it themselves. That's when the payments we were owed stopped. Years later they are the curtain wall supplier for Burj Dubai which is 1/2 mile high (makes the next tallest building look like a chump in comparison). Recently, we spent a couple of months working on "The Development of King Abdul-Aziz Endowment Project" in Saudi Arabia. We sent them all the design and engineering on the "system" and they sent us back an email stating basically, thanks, but no thanks. That means they have enough knowledge to do it themselves so they aren't going to pay us. Risky business the Middle East and any company that relies on business there is in for a harsh lesson.

They did run the Google TV commercial on the Science Channel because I saw it. Of course, everything was on backorder at the time. Whatever they do, just don't get the Shamwow! guy! (I think he's in jail now).

I ask because one of our consultants asked me about the permeance of an insulating paint they used with outstanding success at a hospital about a year ago and I ASSumed it was Nansulate. They were looking for a product that was appropriate to specify for insulating some pipes on a rennovation. I told 'em to go with the REAL product and contact Francesca.

Is there a relationship between supertherm http://www.supertherm.net/ and INTK? This looks like our product repackaged.

I believe it was the Japanese that first developed candlestick analysis.

Not close enough? They're very innovative and constantly trying to improve their product by trying new things.

LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This is the certification program from the USGBC - US Green Building Council. All GSA buildings (courthouses etc.) must be LEED certified. New provisions in the up and coming building codes will require some degree of green design. LEED is huge in commercial construction. The main principle behind LEED is to design a sustainable property. It's too complex to list all the attributes of the program but it's basically a way of making a building and the surrounding property have less negative impact on the environment/community while maximizing the utility and life span of the project.

Contact Ken Smith at ASI Limited and see if you can arrange a demo for them. Seeing is believing.

www.asilimited.com

I think the good thing about having the Prince as a rep. is that he probably has connections with Saudi Binladin Group (yep, same family). Get in good with them and you're on pretty much every project in the Middle East.

OT: Wow! Okay, I've been printing the arch. drawings and I greatly underestimated the size of this Saudi project I'm working on. It's a whole complex of buildings: six towers, a hotel, plaza, etc. It's scale is more on the lines of City Center in Las Vegas (Google it and you'll see what I mean). Looks like I'm going to be putting in some overtime for the next couple of years:(

Well, in INTK's defense, they shipped it USPS and it was delivered to the wrong address. He did receive it yesterday. A curious thing, though; the paint is in a plastic container rather than the metal one's shown on the website. Have they always shipped the 1 gallon product in plastic or is this the solution to their supply problems experienced this spring?

I hate to bag on them when technically, as a shareholder, I'm one of them, but when he called to check on the order the sound of shuffling through a pile of loose papers could be heard in the background. For a tech company they don't seem to have many technical skills.

Well, my buddy has been waiting 3 months for his order. He's pretty frustrated because it was to cool down his master bedroom during the summer; it's now mid-August.

For the most part it's worked so far. 10 years ago there were about 250,000 citizens and about 750,000 ex-pats. I believe the population is about 4,000,000 now and I don't think it's due to the birthrate!

boog,

What a lot of people that haven't been to Dubai don't realize is that there is a lot of empty real estate. I remember (about 9 years ago) pulling up to a shopping mall which occupied the lower floors of a tower, and wondering where the parking garage was. This was about a 30 to 40 story tower and it, seriously, had a parking lot for a few hundred cars. I asked my client where everyone would park and he told me it wasn't neccesary because the building only had a few tennants. Dubai for years has been building based on the Field of Dreams phylosophy that if you build it, they will come. Almost the entire population is ex-pats and when the work slows down, they're gone. Dubai isn't "broke" but they are definitely in pause mode right now.

boog,

What a lot of people that haven't been to Dubai don't realize is that there is a lot of empty real estate. I remember (about 9 years ago) pulling up to a shopping mall which occupied the lower floors of a tower, and wondering where the parking garage was. This was about a 30 to 40 story tower and it, seriously, had a parking lot for a few hundred cars. I asked my client where everyone would park and he told me it wasn't neccesary because the building only had a few tennants. Dubai for years has been building based on the Field of Dreams phylosophy that if you build it, they will come. Almost the entire population is ex-pats and when the work slows down, they're gone. Dubai isn't "broke" but they are definitely in pause mode right now.

Here's what I've been seeing in the Mid-East. Dubai has all but shut down. The Emirate that was utilizing 20% of the world's tower cranes has effectively gone broke. Construction activity in the region is shifting to Saudi Arabia. Having a member in the Royal Family is important and should get us on the short list for projects.

Maybe related to this?

William Prather R.Ph., M.D., Pluristem’s senior vice president corporate development, will present the study design in an oral presentation titled “Update on Pluristem's Phase I Clinical Trial Using PLX-PAD in Critical Limb Ischemia” at noon EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 19. Information on the Phase I study of PLX-PAD for CLI will also be available on a poster presentation. MSC2009 will be held on Aug. 17-19, 2009, at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

“This will be the first scientific forum where we will be informing our peers in the adult stem cell community on our Phase I dose escalating clinical studies using PLX-PAD,” said Zami Aberman, chairman, president and CEO of Pluristem. “This study is ongoing in Europe, enrolling patients diagnosed with critical limb ischemia, the end stage of peripheral artery disease.”

I already have 1000 shares which for me is a large enough percentage. I've been watching a long list of stem cell companies since Obama was elected and to me it looks like the big players are behind in stem cell research so they will be aquiring as much tech and as many of these small companies as they can. I expect almost all stem cell companies to have at least one pop in the next few years.

OT that's a good buying opportunity IMO. They provided more information and now the FDA needs more time to review.

you would have done very well if you bought at the open this am!

Me too! Added another 15k today. Strange though, I put a limit order in above the ask because L2 didn't look deep enough to put in a limit order at or below the ask and it took several minutes to get filled. Usually if you do that they'll take out the ask and make your order the new bid.

Roughly 420,000 sqft but that's based on one very preliminary elevation of the building. I don't know what the footprint of the building is (don't know the depth, just width & height of one side). I also don't know what % will be our scope. For all I know, we may just be doing the ornament on the top!

and it's expensive to do.

Yep, it's all about liability in the construction industry; got to have documentation. Another thing INTK could benefit from doing would be to get their product into the NFRC 101-2006 [E0A12] data base, Appendix C Manufacturer Specific Thermophysical Property Values of Materials. Aspen Aerogels is there; Cabot Nanogel Translucent Aerogel is there. Also, if they had it tested & approved to be in the WUFI North American materials library would also be a big plus.

Not being a full vapor barrier is EXTREMELY important. I've been concerned for years about people painting it on the interior side of their walls if it was. That's all well and good if you live up north in a cold dominated climate but if you do it in Houston or Miami......... The one thing that gave me a little more confidence in the company was from the housing project in north Texas; they put it on the exterior of the houses (I guess they do know what they're doing). Do some research on what happens if you put vinyl wallpaper in a condo in Florida and you'll know what I'm talking about. 5.0 perm is good; a vapor barrier would be in the 0.02 to 0.05 perm range so Nansulate is a semi-permeable, air and water barrier, not a vapor barrier.

It's a little more complicated than that and the project is very early at this point. Once I get drawings and evaluate what the project requirements are, I will call our consultant in Dubai and fill him in on the potential benefits of Nansulate and give him the Prince's contact info or INTK's. The project is 244 meters tall (800.5 ft) and clad with GFRC (glass fiber reinforced concrete) which is VERY vapor permeable so vapor drive and thermal resistance will be a big factor in the design.

Nice. I just got a new project in Saudia Arabia. Maybe I'll finally get to use our product on one of my jobs.

Added some more shares today; looks like I'll get to add some more at a cheaper price. Although it hurts the shares I already own, I guess it's a good thing that it's going down because I want to add a lot more.

OPXA made up almost all of my 401k losses from the dot com bubble burst and the sub prime meltdown. Very nice when your largest holding goes up 300% in one day:) I sold that (because it's not really a stem cell company if they sold that part) and spread it around in 5 stocks, one of them being ASTM. After re-reading the pr about re-growing jaw bone, I'm going to have to add more shares until this is my largest holding. When it sprouts, maybe I'll actually have a gain to show for the last 14 years.

I have a two year old, a five year old, and a pool with an extra 5 or 6 kids over every day because of it. Spongebob is so huge. You know what I'm talking about. The commercial has a great line with a little boy taking a bath, telling his mom that she doesn't have to ask him to take a bath any more. That's a great sales pitch for parents (if not a little devious). What's a few bucks if it saves you a two hour battle at bath time?

They've really been airing the new Spongebob commercial a lot today. Since we have two kids who watch Spongebob more than I'd like to admit, my wife & I have both seen the Ad several times today. If anyone thinks billboards at ballparks sell sponges, you haven't seen anything yet. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that previous sales predictions aren't going to be close; Spongebob is going to get this stock moving.